


Cat's Fugue

by Anonymous



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Dreams, F/M, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-27
Updated: 2017-01-27
Packaged: 2018-09-20 05:36:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9477962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: A dream of glass.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this months ago; it's supposed to be part of a multichapter fic but my attention span died out. Just posting this part here because it stands alone pretty well.

In a flash, the akumatized villain materialized a glass barrier in the air before darting away. He was trying to trap them into a corner.

Ladybug quickly rolled out of the way, yo-yo shooting outward to grasp a ceiling fixture and sling herself forward.

With his luck, of course, Chat Noir was trapped behind the wall.

Mouth twisted into a snarl, Chat struck his staff against the glass. It must be some kind of reinforced magic glass, though, because it didn’t break--his staff just harmlessly bounced off.

He said something out loud, but Ladybug couldn’t hear him. So the glass was soundproof on top of being reinforced and magic, she realized.

She struck her yo-yo against the barrier. When that failed, she knocked her fist on the glass, testing its strength. It didn't budge, and she left her palm on the surface, exasperated.

Mind racing, Ladybug thought of what she could do next. Should she leave Chat there and go by herself to de-evilize the akumatized victim? Or maybe Chat could-

Her eyes met Chat’s, and for the hundredth time, she felt it. Both of them clicking into an easy understanding, the same synchronization that kept them intact as a team. Whether it was running and jumping and attacking side-by-side, or Chat knowing exactly what to do when she activated her Lucky Charm.

And even though she still couldn’t hear him, Ladybug also knew that when he opened his mouth to again say something, it was a silly pun.

She huffed and rolled her eyes.

Chat winked. He put his hand on the glass, palm across hers, and if the wall wasn’t there, they would have been touching hands, black-gloved against red-gloved.

Blackness ignited at Chat’s fingertips. His Cataclysm set cracks spiraling in the barrier, shards of glass crackling like firecrackers.

Chat reached forward, applying pressure.

Ladybug was about to pull her hand away and step backward, but she discovered, surprised, that the fragments of glass didn’t hurt when they rained down in the space between them. Instead, they were dissolving into fine silver dust that coated her from head to toe.

 _Like flour_ , she thought. Marinette usually wasn’t clumsy while she baked, but awhile back, a bag of flour once exploded on her when she tried to open it.

Her parents weren’t mad: before they all cleaned the mess, Tom just laughed, lightly teasing, and Sabine had snapped a picture of her.

When Marinette saw the picture later, she thought that it looked like she was covered in snow.

Now, the shining dust of the glass was all over Ladybug’s shoulders, her hair, her clothes--Chat was getting covered, too.

Chat’s Cataclysm had faded by now. His momentum kept him falling forward, and he was grasping, floundering.

With the barrier dissolved, his hand folded over Ladybug's.

She didn’t know why, but she didn’t shake him off. Instead, she looked down at his hand and noticed his beeping ring.

"You're changing back," Ladybug said. "Chat--"

"It's fine," he said, with a smile. "I trust you."

His gloved hand felt warm, familiar.

The silver dust was like a crown in his hair, ringed around messy blond curls and twitching cat ears.

Both she and Chat were gleaming bright from the glass, and Ladybug caught herself thinking she wouldn't mind if it happened this way.

It was strange and almost ridiculous--Chat-Noir-kind-of-ridiculous, an off-the-cuff identity reveal while both of them were _sparkling_ , for crying out loud.

She wasn’t sure what she was doing. Her heart was pounding so hard that it hurt. But she kept her eyes on his and kept her hand in his.

His ring let out a final beep.

A wave of light washed over him, his cat ears and tail retracting.

She tried to look at his face through the light--

\--and Marinette woke up, her heart still thudding in her chest.

“Marinette?” Tikki said blearily, waking up, too. She was curled up beside Marinette, nestled amongst a couple of pillows. “Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah,” Marinette said. “I had a weird dream, Tikki.”

Tikki edged over to nuzzle against Marinette’s cheeks. “You can tell me about it, you know. Is it about our visit to Master Fu? When you heard more about Hawk Moth--?”

Marinette shuddered, but shook her head. Yesterday, she had showed that mysterious old man the book she had taken from Adrien. Master Fu hadn’t explained much--he said he would tell her more about the book later, telling her to keep it--but he talked about Hawk Moth.

Fu’s kwami Wayzz had sensed Hawk Moth months ago, when the Moth Miraculous was activated.

Marinette hadn’t really been thinking of Hawk Moth as a fellow Miraculous user, even though she knew he was. Sometimes it felt like she was fighting an akumatized villain every other day, every other week, someone quickly dispatched by Ladybug and Cat Noir. Hawk Moth was only a villain in the distance.

But it was beginning to hit her how much power Hawk Moth had, and how he was forcing a kwami to akumatize victims for him.

She knew she had to face him eventually. Not from a distance, but in person, to stop him from making akumas over and over again, profiting off of Paris’ suffering.

Brushing away thoughts of Hawk Moth, Marinette told Tikki about her dream. Broken glass and being on the brink of finding out who Chat Noir was.

“I don’t get it,” she said. “It’s not a good idea to know his identity. _At all._ We have secret identities for a reason, even if he’s my partner.”

Marinette was frustrated. Why had her dream self stood there? She should’ve refused and taken off in pursuit of the akuma, which was the reasonable thing to do.

“It’s just a dream,” Tikki said, comforting. “It doesn’t have to mean anything big. Maybe you’re just subconsciously curious. It’s natural.”

“Why now?”

“We were talking about Miraculous users yesterday with Master Fu,” Tikki reminded her. “With Master saying that he gave a Miraculous to Chat like he gave the Ladybug Miraculous to you. So you’re wondering about his identity.”

“That could be it,” Marinette said. She poked a finger at her forehead as if she could make sense of her brain that way.

Then she sighed, mustered herself, and said, “You’re right. It’s a dream, Tikki, and it’s just about that silly kitty anyway. I should get back to sleep.”

Tikki gave Marinette an encouraging smile, nuzzling her again. “Yeah. You don’t want to be late to school again. Don’t worry, Marinette.”

Marinette nodded tiredly. She curled up under her blankets and felt sleepiness wash over her.

This time, she didn’t dream, but somewhere, there was still that visceral impression of silver glass dust settling against her skin.


End file.
